Given the ubiquitous nature of mobile electronic devices such as, for example, mobile communication devices like cellular telephones, many people are utilizing an expanding variety of applications that are executable at such mobile electronic devices. For example, applications for providing services related to communications, media sharing, information gathering, education, gaming, and many others have been developed, fueled by consumer demand. One particular area in which consumer demand has triggered an expansion of services relates to provision of services related to managing the establishment of communications with, for example, users of other mobile electronic devices. For example, a communication session may be established between various client devices via a network server. Protocols which may be used in such communication sessions may include, for example, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Motorola Push-to-Talk (M-PTT) protocol, and the like.
SIP is an application-layer control (signaling) protocol for creating, modifying, and terminating sessions with one or more participants. SIP is widely used as a signaling protocol for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and media sharing applications. SIP is addressing neutral, with addresses expressed as a uniform resource locator (URL), a uniform resource identifier (URI), a telephone number, an email like address, or the like. SIP is generally considered to be lightweight since it has a limited number of methods to reduce complexity, and transport-independent since it can be used with User Datagram Protocol (UDP), Transport Control Protocol (TCP) and other transport protocols.
M-PTT is an example of a SIP based protocol which may be employed for session based communications such as push-to-talk (PTT) communications. M-PTT signaling messages are text based messages which may be used to set up calls from one network node (e.g., a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone) to another. For example, M-PTT or another session based protocol may be used to set up a PTT call between two network nodes that have subscribed to a PTT service.
SIP, M-PTT and other protocols for establishing communication sessions often include a server or proxy device for facilitating session setup. For example, when powering up, a PTT enabled device may be configured to automatically register with the server or proxy. In this regard, for example, a client application may be stored at the PTT enabled device which, when executed, executes instructions to register the PTT enabled device to a PTT server to enable the PTT enabled device to conduct PTT communications. However, according to current practices, if a user of the PTT enabled device discontinues the PTT service, but still uses the PTT enabled device for other non-PTT related services (e.g., voice, BREW, WAP or the like), the client application in the PTT enabled device may still attempt to register with the PTT server each time the PTT enabled device is powered up. Since the PTT server must respond to the registration attempt, server resources are unnecessarily consumed. Accordingly, if large numbers of inactive PTT enabled devices attempt registration, a significant traffic load may be placed on both network and server resources. A misbehaving client device may also cause excessive network and server resource consumption due to repeated attempts at registration to a service.
Accordingly, it may be desirable to provide a mechanism by which to address at least some of the problems described above.